Cebu / Davao May 8th - June 26th

[CyberGlitch]

To give uninitiated viewers a sense of how many things in the Philippines seem to be 'three quarter scale size' compared to things in the USA (like toilets), Vin Diesel is said to be 5'11 tall.  Note how it's impossible for him to sit in a fully, 'normal' upright position in that jeepney.
 
If anything, hollywood and publicists tend to inflate  how tall an actor really is, so you might imagine how a long ride in a hot, crowded jeepney might be!
 
And as jeepney's go, that's a pretty cushy one!

I was thinking the same thing. Padded ceilings and plenty of room down the middle. I want that Jeepney! lol     


We we're saying the same thing about how tall he is and I'm the same height. You don't notice it when you are doing it yourself, slouching or bending your neck. Seeing those pictures though makes me think how I look.


Oh, also notice the SUV following in the first picture and then either the same or another one to the right on the last picture. So private jeepney and security to follow. 


and I've already been called Tom Cruise a few times when I've got my glasses on.

[robert angel]

I was thinking the same thing. Padded ceilings and plenty of room down the middle. I want that Jeepney! lol     


We we're saying the same thing about how tall he is and I'm the same height. You don't notice it when you are doing it yourself, slouching or bending your neck. Seeing those pictures though makes me think how I look.


Oh, also notice the SUV following in the first picture and then either the same or another one to the right on the last picture. So private jeepney and security to follow. 


and I've already been called Tom Cruise a few times when I've got my glasses on.

 
With all the pretty girls there in the malls and all about (some say Cebu City has the nation's prettiest women, most agree the Visayas does overall)--you better keep the sunglasses handy!

 

That's a beautiful lady you're with and you don't want to have to deal with a case of 'tampo', where she's upset, silent and you've got to figure out why!
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampo

 

Tampo, in Philippine culture, refers to a range of behavior in which a person withdraws his or her affection or cheerfulness from a person who has hurt his or her feelings.[1]
The term has no precise equivalent in English, though "sulking" or "to sulk" is often considered the closest translation
 
 

[CyberGlitch]

Already been through 1 of those before even coming down here. She was a little shocked when later when I even brought it up and mentioned it. She doesn't mind if I look, long as she's still on my arm and going home with her.     I'm generally not 1 to let my eyes wonder anyways. Paying to much attention to everything else.




Lantaw for dinner and watching the sunset was awesome. Anne took it easy on me and ordered up some Lenchon Manok and Calamari.... omg that was delicious! Being Thursday as well not very crowded at all. When we first got there around 4:30 we had the whole section to ourselves. Then come 5:30 is when more started to come but still not many people at all.


Now the fun really begins with 5 or 6 of her friends coming over tonight. We'll be finishing the bottle of moonshine and vodka I have I'm sure! Thinking of going to Mountain View Park with them tomorrow morning since it's hard to get a ride back into town from there and between the friends have enough motorcycles to bring us both up there. That'll be interesting!

[CyberGlitch]

Trip to Davao was interesting and looong. We hopped on the boat to CDO at 8pm and I was still exhausted from the night before when her friends came over. The 5-6 friends she originally said would come over quickly turned to 10-12. We went through 3 bottles of liquor and had a fun night though talking about most anything. Most came over again Wednesday night for Anne’s birthday.


I just slept the entire time on the boat and woke up around 4am with the boat docking at 5am. Since we got tickets at last minute all they had were presidential suites left. It was only 800 more than the cabin we were going to get so wasn’t a big issue for me. The thought did cross my mind about us leaving the ticket place and me sending her back alone later to see if she got the same story without me there and no cabins left. The private suite facing the front of the boat with windows and all was nice though.


We touch down in CDO and she’s really concerned about my safety there and is trying to rush to get off the boat, to bus terminal and onto the bus. No messing around here. We get a little lucky and 1 of the buses was about to leave and had 2 empty seats at the very back of the bus. So we settle in for what turned out to be an 8 hour bus ride! She knows I’ve got some back issues and kept asking to make sure I was ok because of sitting in 1 spot for so long. Honestly, after maybe the first 4-5 hours my back was killing me but the scenery and everything else made it worth it. I’d still do the first trip by bus again though too.


The bus was supposed to only be “4 stops” it ended up more like 10+ with stopping at nearly every bus terminal along the way and also stopping for breakfast, lunch and pit stop. The first stop we didn’t get up or move, she being concerned for my safety with getting off the bus. The next stop that I already knew was coming was for quarantine and everyone had to get off. She about flipped out knowing I had to step off the bus and be “exposed”. Next stop I asked if she would get more water and some snacks to eat along the way. She ended up getting 2 bags of local potato chips, 1 starting with Pi some cheese flavored chips. They are now my new favorite snack while here they were so good. After that I had enough and started standing up during the stops and even told her I had to get off the bus and just stretch a few times. We finally make it to Davao and head to the venue for the reunion.


Her family rented out this entire resort on the beach for the weekend. So we get there and we are both exhausted and want to just take a short nap. An uncle starts to show us to a room we’ll be sharing with a few other family members. She speaks up asking if there is anything else available for just us thinking I would be uncomfortable. They did have 1 room left so we went to that one and crashed. Hour or so later we’re up and start mingling with the family and meeting relatives. Getting a lot of pictures taken with everyone and having a few drinks with some of them as well. There were 2 other foreigner husbands but they weren’t very social at all and just sat way out of the way in order to not have to talk to anyone; not even giving me a nod hello. So I got tons of bonus points for being social and having fun!


We crash back in our room for a bit and then it gets interesting. Few people try to come in the room while we’re in there but we don’t think anything of it. We get up ready for dinner they are serving and as we walk out of the room there are like 10-15 people standing outside the room. Apparently more relatives showed up and didn’t have a room to stay in now. Anne quickly offers to share our room but then is later upset at herself for doing it so quickly without asking me. We sit on the beach and I tell her it’s fine so long as they don’t mind the high aircon and they are relatively quiet when I go to bed. Was it a little awkward at first? Sure. Did it force me to get to know more relatives and them get to know me better. Sure. So in the end it all worked out I think. After everything was done for the night and I got in the bed I slept like a baby anyways.


Next day we head to DECA wake boarding first thing in the morning. We grabbed some Jollibee for breakfast and then taxi to DECA. We got there a little too early but they had wifi and an electrical outlet they let me use. I started talking to Anne and said we’re going to fly back to Cebu instead of bus/boat again, she’s never been on a plane! So I take my time and surf around and find the lowest air fare, get tickets ordered and before I know it they are asking if I’m ready to start. We both sign away our lives with their waiver and do a short orientation. You have to first prove a little skill with kneeboarding and being able to go within some markers they have setup. They said 5 laps like that before wakeboarding. I’m first up for the day and a crowd is starting to form. I get ready and hold on for dear life and I’m jerked off the starting line… woohoo I didn’t wipe out first try! I ended up getting all 5 laps finished in 1 shot with little issue! Mistake #1 Don’t do all laps at once and only do 1 or 2 with short breaks. I did plenty of stretching and all before heading out but my arms were jello. Since I had an all-day pass I took an hour or 2 break and watched some of the others go.  Anne eventually got up the courage to give it a try as well after seeing a few other girls trying and everyone else wiping out but still having fun. So proud of her for getting out there and trying. She did good on the kneeboarding, had a little problem with standing but wouldn’t give up till she did at least 1 lap which she did eventually do!!


Flight back to Cebu was fun. First, it’s nice to be able to easily and quickly go through security and not have to take everything out of my bags, take off my shoes and all that crap! We get to our terminal and sit and chat for a bit. We get on the plane and I’ve never seen her so nervous. I swear I lost all circulation on my hand for the entire flight she was holding on so hard. We get a smooth take off and get altitude and all is fine, or so I thought for the short 1hr flight. She’s next to the window so I can see out the window as I’m talking to her and 20 mins in I’m seeing lightning. I try to calmly tell her to not freak out and try to relax as there might be some turbulence. Then we enter the storm and the plane gets a little wobbly, she about took my entire arm off holding on so tight. She makes it through though and is amazed our previous 18ish hour journey is done in just over an hour and we’re back home. Moment we get off the plane I’m flagging down and instructing a taxi where to bring us. She was impressed I took charge and knew how to get back home on my own in Visayan. J

We took it easy this week and mostly just rest at home and a little shopping. We took her siblings out to a local beach for a little bit the other day and they enjoyed that. I couldn’t get out in the water as I got some bad sunburn from wakeboarding. So her and I just sat in the shade and enjoyed the view and breeze.


No big plans this weekend either. We might catch a movie at SM and have a rematch of billiards while there as well. Tuesday is crown regency since she has a gift certificate for free rides and other stuff and then we’re thinking Oslob and whale sharks for Thursday to beat the weekend crowd.

[CyberGlitch]

I put this together from our trip to Oslob.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Qop-mEVyM




I don't have an issue with the locals feeding them to bring them to the area. However, they could be a little more cautious with the direction and proximity of where they throw the food. They say to keep 4 meters away and don't touch them. That's hard to do when the feeder boats are throwing the food right in front of you. Only minutes after jumping in I literally had 1 swim right underneath me I was practically sitting on it and hit it's fins.

[thekfc]

Swimming with the whale sharks.......Sweet!!!!!!!!

It looks like you are enjoying yourselves. 

[thekfc]

I was waiting to see a knee boarding jump and then a 360 twisting turn while in the air. 

The floating restaurant looks really empty, the one I took in Bohol when we were on our honeymoon was filled.

[robert angel]

Wow, that video was a real treat--what an experience, I bet. Really good perspectives on your writeups--I can almost smell the deisel fumes of the bus terminals, the heat and dust. Kudos on picking up on the language--I am sure, most certainly in social circles, they are impressed with your effort there. Went out last night to a Filipino B Day party and as typical, they were impressed that I knew even hello, thank you, you're welcome and good bye.
 
She sounds like a really nice gal, traditional and taking care of you. Glad she's able to get some time off. Enjoy!

[CyberGlitch]

I was waiting to see a knee boarding jump and then a 360 twisting turn while in the air. 

The floating restaurant looks really empty, the one I took in Bohol when we were on our honeymoon was filled.

the jumps and tricks was the plan. I've done them before on inlines and bmx so it's not out of my realm. However, my arms were not prepared for how much you have to hold on to the wire system and after awhile just gave out. Was afraid to continue and once I fell or let go not able to swim to the sides.


Just got back from Bohol this weekend and yes, their floating restaurants are packed. Lantaw in Cordova on a weekday, barely anyone there!




Spent Sunday night and Monday in Bohol, Panglao Island actually and stayed in the newer resort; The Bellevue. Started out with the resort shuttle not being there and we couldn't reach them by phone. Anne was trying to find a pay phone or security guard to help call them. I talked to a taxi driver and it's a flat standard rate for the island of 600. I tell Anne forget it and let's go, I'd rather pay the 600 and be there quickly then wait who knows how long till we can call them and they get a shuttle to us. Turned out to be a good thing as we talked to the driver on the way to resort. We saw signs for standard rates for different tours as well. We wanted to do the country side tour and island hoping tours anyways. Said he can do the country site tour and has a friend with boat that could do the island hopping, 2500 for each package. We get his info and said would call him later if interested.


We get to Bellevue and no room available for early check-in, it's like 9:30 am now, and they say we have to wait till after 2pm. We check their info desk for their packages and they offer the same but much much more expensive for same exact thing, 3500 for country side and 8500 for up to 4 island hopping!! 


We give our driver a call and go off to chocolate hills, floating restaurant, tarsiers, butterfly sanctuary, largest python... I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I just remember there being 8 items on the list. lol Anne's never been to this area or seen any of these things either so we both had an amazing time for the day. I loooved the restaurant and almost ruined it for myself. The buffet style food was amazing and once I was done eating, the boat still had not departed yet and I was about ready to leave and get on with the tour. I waited for Anne to finish and just before I was about to say let's go they were getting ready to leave. Just the live singing entertainment alone made it worth it, the guy was good too. Glad I didn't miss that now.


Chocolate hills was very interesting. Anne had a hard time with all the steps and I kept picking on her. After about half-way up I said forget this slow walking and just ran up the rest of the stairs. Long stairs don't phase me a bit, use to work on 4th floor of a building and never took their crappy elevators and always ran up/down them, got calves of steel.    Almost felt like doing it again afterwards starting from the bottom just to see how fast I could do the entire thing. I kind of giggled every time I saw someone having such a hard time, it's only roughly 200 stairs.


Saw plenty of tarsiers. You really don't appreciate how small they are till you see them in person; about the size of a single fist. I got a few souvenirs for my girls and a nice tarsiers/bohol t-shirt for myself.


We get back to the hotel around 5pm and take a short rest in our amazing corner room on the 5th floor with ocean view as requested. We go down to the beach for awhile and wade out in the water. Find a nice area and just sit in the ocean with my arms around here as we watch the sunset, very romantic. Everyone else was in the pool and only maybe another 4 or 5 people in the water on a fairly large beach. We eventually make our way to the pool and then the bar before getting some dinner. I decided since I've done nothing but filipino food 90% of the time to have a nice big bacon cheese burger. It was ok but afterwards wish I went filipino.


Day 2 of bohol and island hopping to come.

[thekfc]

Nice report CG.

When we did the Bohol tour back in 2010 we saw or did
1. Butterfly Conservation Center
2. Chocolate Hills.
3.Tarsiers & Wombat
4. Loboc floating restaurant
5. Bacalayan Chruch & Museum
6. Man made forest.
7. Blood Compact shrine/site.
8. Hanging bridge (we didn't go on it).
9. Nipa trees stop (IIR, they use a different name than nipa).
10. Souvenir shopping - no matter where you are in the world, it comes with every tour. 
There were some other stuff we saw but I too don't remember.

We didn't see the pythons.

Yep, the Tarsiers are an amazing animal to see in person.

My wife also didn't like the climb up to see the chocolate hills, it was very hot at the top of the hill - we went there the first week of July.

Yep, the restaurant was great - food and all. Were there kids swimming/diving in the river as the restaurant was going up/down the river?

We booked the tour thru our hotel; there were other guest who were going & we were the last to book from the previous day. The bus did show up on time.
                                                                     

[CyberGlitch]

No swimming as we were going up/down the river. Just at the stop up river where the tribe is. Man, those boys where climbing the trees a good 20-25' high and jumping in!! Looked like a lot of fun and tempting.


Island hoping was fun and near the end of the day I was laughing. We had a private boat all to ourselves and I was noticing every other boat was full of people 6-8+ depending on the boat size. My guess is they booked it through the hotel and the hotel is cramming as many as they can in the same boat.


I don't recall the name of the first stop but was an awesome little island. We went snorkeling there and saw all kinds of fish and coral. We worked our way out to the cliff and hung out there for a bit and got a quick glimpse of a turtle. Guide asked if we wanted to try and see more turtles, which of course was yes. So we went a short ways away and little further out from the cliff drop. Saw a few bigger fish and then out of the deep blue another turtle. We starting swimming and following it as it was going around. Then to our surprise another turtle showed up with it and shortly after they both dove down deep. By this time the battery in the camera was already dead from pictures and movies... well thought it was a dead battery. We go back in and swim around looking at everything and I dive down to the bottom a couple times. Amazing time. She couldn't get me out of the water until her legs started cramping. So we went back to shore.


She goes to this small shack and asks what they have for food and lunch. Answer was basically whatever we wanted them to cook. So she asked for some fried chicken and lechon kawali. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm I couldn't get enough of the lechon kawali and that sauce. Wow! I think all together it came to something like 600php. Crazy! We relax for awhile and also dry off a bit.


At this point it's getting a little late for us and the 1 place I wanted to go was Virgin Island so we headed that way. We needed to get back to the port at 5pm for our 6pm departure. We made the absolute most out of the short time we were staying there. 2 days and 1 night, we saw everything we wanted to and ready to go home anyways. lol Virgini Island was amazing but OMG it was so hot there even Anne was complaining. Second we get off the boat we're bombarded with people wanting to sell shells and pearls. They are practically trying to put them in your hands. Was 1 of the first times I've seen Anne get frustrated while continuing to tell everyone no thanks. They won't take no for an answer and you have to just ignore them. We walked around most of the island and remembered since we aren't getting wet we can take pics and video with my cell phone. So thankfully still got some shots.


It's getting to be late in the afternoon so we get back on the boat and head off to Alona beach. We hang out there at 1 of the bars. At this point I noticed another 1 of my mistakes. My arms got burned pretty bad swimming with the whale sharks. So this time wore 1 of my long sleeve sport shirts and it worked great. However, I kind of forgot the back of my legs are fully exposed while snorkeling and just floating in the water. They were deep red like a lobster and I was starting to hurt. Have a few drinks and wait till roughly 4:30 before finding a taxi to bring us back to the pier and head back home to Lapu-Lapu. Moment we get home we are both so tired we just had quick snack, pain meds and lotion on my legs and then to sleep in less than an hour after being home.

[CyberGlitch]

Been so busy never did a wrap up of the last few weeks before I returned home.


I rented a pump boat that fit 20 people and we filled it up with a bunch of her friends. We only asked that they bring and cook the food.    We had a blast island hopping, swimming and snorkeling. I didn't realize till the next day that Anne said that was the first time a lot of her friends have been island hopping and snorkeling!! I was glad to give them all that experience they would never forget with me and Anne.


Over the next week we just had a couple small get togethers at the house like normal and during most week days I would ride a jeepney and meet her at work. We would then grab a taxi and go do something, TOPs, Taoist Temple, walk around colon st, walk around mango st.


Few days before I was set to leave we got another boat just for us and went out to the fish sanctuary for more snorkeling, just the 2 of us. Had a blast there and saw so many fish. Wish my under water camera didn't die weeks before. Afterwards went out to another small mall in the area for dinner and then head home.


Last few days we just hung out at the house watching movies or went to SM to play some pool for a few hours.


Back home now and already missing her like crazy and trying to process everything.